Dear John
by lady.fame
Summary: A young girl loses everything when the Covenant finds Planet Reach. To support her younger siblings, she sends them to live with their Aunt on Earth and joins the military. What happens when she's put in the SPARTAN program? MCOC JohnOC Lemons later!
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: A young teenager gets pulled into the SPARTAN program to help save the earth. How will Master Chief react to the young and new SPARTAN that's assigned to aid him in any means necessary? MCXOC gonna have lemons in later chapters.**

**Disclaimer: Halo, Halo 2, and Halo 3, all belong to Microsoft, Bungie, and Xbox.**

It was my last year in high school, I was only 15 but I skipped a couple of grades, and I was graduating early. I wanted to quickly get my degree and get out of the house. See the world, you know, everything like that. I was young and foolish too, I wasn't stupid…all teenagers are fools. I was smart though, too. I knew what the only thing a teenaged boy was looking for, sex and not love. And every girl just wanted to love, and so I knew to not have sex until I at least graduated from college.

My friends, I can't remember them now, but I had five of them. We would go everywhere together, we'd drive down to the beach, we'd go to the mall, skate park, we were inseparable. We talked about college too some times, and it scared us because all of us wanted to go to different places. Study abroad, University of Northern Colorado, University of Phoenix, online college, didn't want to go to college abroad, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, NYU, BYU! All were possibilities that some of us either didn't want to go, or did want to go.

I remember my best friend since grade school though, Elizabeth. I remember watching her die. She was Mormon(nothing against mormons, just BYU seems to be the place they all would like to go or consider for college!); she wanted to go to BYU Hawaii. Lounge on the beach every weekend, get a nice tan; I explained to her it probably wasn't like that…everyone expected from Florida almost the exact same thing, but weren't anything like that either.

"Okay, Mary!"

"Mary"…I hated that name. They'd call me Mary Sue because they thought I was perfect, my doesn't even start with an M or even an S. I'm not perfect though, I had to study really hard every year just to pass Chemistry. Physics is easy though…I'm not clumsy either, I have a tendency to ramble, I also have a tendency for being a sarcastic bitch. I'm not perfect.

Then again, a person can only see their flaws while another can only see their perfections and their own flaws. I remember the Covenant coming during Homecoming game…the Spartans versus the Trojans, biggest rival in the state, and we were losing so far. Then we all heard something jump into our atmosphere, and everyone seemed to just freeze and look up into the sky to see the Covenant's ship. Drop ships quickly appeared and a big massive one overtook the sky.

At first we all stood there like idiots, and then realization dawned on us, and everyone started yelling trying to get out of the stadium. My friends and I jumped the fence and exited the stadium the same way the football players were. One of my friends, a football player, quickly joined us as we ran home to our parents, to see what we were to do. We were never trained for this.

Reach was supposed to stay safe. It's our sanctuary.

I heard the barking noises of Elites, my friend and I hid in the bottom of the stairway to apartments. When we felt we were safe, we got out and continued sprinting home. To see armed soldiers, escorting us to a pelican. I knew where it was now…

But I wasn't going on just yet, I had to go and get my younger siblings. I darted away from the crowd and quickly ran home. It wasn't until afterwards that I found out that Elizabeth was right behind me to help. She went into her house and I went into mine.

I heard the baby crying and the screen door slam, I then heard a barking in curiosity as to what the sound was. Gasping, I hid in the closet and watched as a big alien looked at the door curiously and looked around, gun raised – ready. As they went down the hall towards he living room, I raced down the hall that led to the kitchen and the stairs. Just to find a sight I didn't want to see, my dad and mom on the ground. I covered my mouth to stop the scream as I heard the barking noise coming closer, I quickly rushed up the stairs where the baby was still crying and my younger brother trying desperately to quiet him down.

"Shh…" I whispered to the toddler and the baby as I quickly kicked out the screen to the window, and ushered them out, I watched them climb down the vines and then I heard, "Humans." Turning, I saw an Elite with blue armor, he raised his weapon, but I threw myself out the window, I rolled down and tried to grab the railing, but I missed and fell into the bushes.

"C'mon, c'mon," I said picking up the child and started running, I then saw Elizabeth running out her door, a Grunt came out and shot her once in the back, once in the head, and in the shoulder. She fell to the ground, dead.

"NOO!"

"Let's go SPARTANs-"

"Get the civilian to the pelican 593."

"Sir, yes, sir."

Someone took us and took us away from the battlefield and towards a pelican. I followed, I felt like a machine that was just running on a battery. When we were inside, we practically thrown into our seats and he yanked our belts onto us and patted the pilot's chair before running back outside. Watching them go, I wasn't too sure what to feel, I just felt depressed.

The question was, how was I supposed to support my family now? Social Services was threatening to take us apart if I didn't find a job soon, I couldn't relay for much longer on our parent's funds. I sat feeding my baby sister formula when soldiers passed by me, maybe my only option was to send them to my aunt's on planet Earth, we were told there was no way that they could find Earth. But they found Reach.

Finally coming to a decision, I filled out the form for my younger siblings to go to my Aunt's place. I filled out the form, explaining I was going to stay here and join the military. I have lost everything, I have lost everyone, and now I was going to fight in the war, that took everyone and everything away from me.

**So should I stop? I'm sorry about those who enjoy my You Belong With Me story, I thought my reader's hated it so I was going to quite, but apparently not, so I'm working on that again too. Review please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**OMG! I didn't think I was going to get any reviews; I was about to delete it! Thank you so much **girlrock250297 **you really made my day when I checked my email :) **

**Here's the next chapter, PLEASE REVIEW! It really motivates me; and if you have a JohnOC/MCOC/etc. idea that you haven't seen yet, or that you wrote yourself, please tell me and I'll read it, or I'll make it up after I've written this one.**

**And for those who are interested, this story was going to take a totally different direction, John was going to meet a civilian and she was going to get "Dear John" letters, and when ever he could, he would be sent back to Earth for a little "R and R" I'll probably try to get that one up next, but for now, here's Chapter Two!**

Chapter Two: Toy Soldier

Apparently I wasn't the only one who felt the same, there were ten other teenagers with me, they explained to us that they were rushing us through everything because I bodies were still in the developing stage, and they didn't want them to get out of that stage. They also reminded us that some of us might not even survive through the project. None of us left though, I looked around at my "team mates" so they called them. We all knew each other and some how we worked perfectly with each other.

There were three girls, including me, and seven boys. I don't remember any of there names, even though it's only been a week. I only know their nicknames that we've given each other, and their numbers, because we constantly referred to as such. I remember my name though; I was warned though, that I'd forget it. For some reason, that's the only part of this project that scared me. So before I go to bed, every night, I chant my name in my head until I go to sleep.

"Brooke, Brooke, Brooke, Brooke," I would chant until my eyes closed from being so warn out from the days work. As our workouts increased though, I would be too tired to say my name, and I would just go to sleep.

"Hey Double O Seven, wake up, we're late."

Opening my eyes with a start, I realized what my roommate said was true. Scrambling up, I quickly yanked on my camouflage pants over my black underwear, I then finally found my black work out shirt and yanked it over my black bra and ran a brush through my black hair before quickly yanking it up into a tight bun.

Our doors opened, we no longer needed an escort, and we just quickly left our room and all ten of us headed towards the mess hall for breakfast. No one was awake yet, it was four in the morning, the only people in the cafeteria were the ones that had to work this early, and they were just getting coffee before leaving. We were quite when we walked through the hall, yawning and whispering to each other, but the moment we got into the mess hall we talked at a normal pitch.

"What do you think we're doing today," my roommate, and my friend, Cat, at least that's what we called her, she was silent and her moves were always deliberate, like a panther, and she knew how to blind into her surroundings. She was amazing with a knife, I wouldn't want to be with her when she got pissed off at someone and a knife was by her hand.

"Hopefully not that goddamn jungle gym…" I scowled as I took a box of cereal, I know lame. I was still a sugar junkie though and always had Lucky Charms for breakfast, never eggs in my entire life that I've been alive.

"Yeah, wouldn't want to see Double O Seven trip over her own two feet again," joked the youngest out of all of us, he was only twelve, everyone laughed at this, and the little shrimp high-fived the oldest out of all of us.

The one that insulted me, we called him Speed Racer, D001, and Dr. Halsley, the one in charge of the SPARTAN project, picked him. He was fast too; he could run a mile well under four minutes. It was amazing; we were told that the augmentation would enhance a lot of our characteristics, like speed, I was curious to see how fast he could run after the procedure.

The oldest, his name was Bronze, D009. He was the strongest, I was the second strongest, believe it or not. So we were constantly partnered together if we were working on fighting, because when I was paired up with the other girl, Izzie, I cracked one of her ribs by accident without knowing.

Izzie, she was great with technology, I'm not so I couldn't explain to how good she was. She's just really good, I know she said when she lived on Reach she used to crack into Military's secret files all the time and not leave a trace of her wear about. She said, also, that she read a lot about the SPARTAN project and knows all about the augmentation procedure, and what Dr. Halsley told us about the survival rate was indeed true. As we ate, we spoke and were almost teenagers again.

"Alright, lets go," Bronze, said looking at the clock on the wall, it was ten minutes to six thirty, and we didn't want to be late. We dumped our trays and thanked the chef and walked down the hall. Stretching my arms above my head I slung them behind my head lazily.

We got out to the field and sat around for a while when someone came out, he was in P.E. uniform, we didn't get up. We were told to just ignore the other soldiers, we would still look at them some times, curious, but we wouldn't interact. We were truly like a wolf pack.

"Hey…is that…" questioned a young boy with a heavy Russian accent; we called him Little Voice, because he barely ever spoke.

"Yes that is, the Master Chief, and the last SPARTAN-II survivor, John-117, height…" Izzie started to go on, I wasn't paying attention anymore; I'd never heard of this guy, but everyone was standing now, looking at him with awe, so I was standing too, looking at him with pure curiosity. What made him so special? 

"Your instructor, Charlotte, had to leave," he said with a deep voice, "I'll be your instructor until his return."

Bronze, because he was the strongest, was also our leader. He wasn't technology and book smart like Isabella, but he watched out for all of us. He was our leader, and we always looked to him.

"Sir, yes, sir."

We all responded in unison.

If we thought Charlotte was tough, this guy was even tougher. We were running and if I didn't make it, because I'm the slowest, he would make all of us run it again. I tried to keep up with everyone, but I couldn't. We ran the five-mile run 20 times that day, until finally he was required to let us go in for dinner and then head to bed.

I didn't leave though, I started timing myself; I don't understand what it was, it just bothered me that I was the one that was dragging my team mates behind. To the point where I was running all night long, just going slower and slower. My body worn and tired from not getting food or hydration, but I kept going. I didn't want to give up.

"Brooke….Brooke…D007," I couldn't believe that my name didn't register, I hadn't even noticed that I had fallen on the ground until someone grabbed my shoulder and rolled me so that they could look in my face, it was Bronze. "What the hell were you thinking?"

Opening my mouth to say something, I didn't notice how dry my throat was, I couldn't make out a word, he picked me up with ease and carried me inside.

"Michael, get the fuck up."

Michael, he was a scrawny little thing that always had to push up his glasses, Dr. Halsley also grabbed him, he looked over me, his breath was disgusting, but I couldn't talk at the moment, so I couldn't tell him to stop breathing on me. And, I don't think I should've been worrying about bad breath at the moment, and more of my help. The reason why I remember Michael's name was because I was easily his nickname too, Medic.

"Can you fix her up Medic, we're supposed to stay healthy at all costs, I don't know how that Spartan and how the Doc will take it if they find her like this…" Bronze explained with worry.

"I don't know her body's pretty worn, her blood sugars far too low, did she even go to dinner?"

"I hadn't even noticed," Bronze scowled, "Dammit, I should've-"

"Stop beating yourself up about it," when did Speed come? "Can you fix her up or not Medic?"

"Speed go outside and keep watch, Izzie, see if you can tap into the security cameras and watch out for our new…i_nstructor_," Bronze said the last word with distaste, so he didn't trust him either.

"Hey 007, you gotta stay awake okay," he said as I was nodding off, "You have some kind of juice in here?"

"Speed, I'll keep watch, sprint to the cafeteria and get some juice, and don't talk to _anyone, _understand?"

**Master Chief's POV**

"I can't believe I'm stuck taking care of some brats," John scowled.

"Stop your bitching," Johnson said with a smirk, "All ten of them could be working with you soon anyways."

John scoffed, "Not on my watch…I'd rather be partnered with a-"

"Hey," Johnson said, "Watch it…isn't that kid one of yours?"

John looked, and immediately spotted D001, the fastest. He raced into the cafeteria, grabbed a juice box and started to leave, sighing; I got up too and followed. He tried to act casual, and when he looked back and spotted me, he looked more nervous and just walked quicker.

"Hey," I barked when he started to run, "Hey!"

He stopped when I yelled at him, he seemed torn; he was only a child, so he immediately gave me a guilty look before taking my hand and pulling me along with him. Scowling at this childish act he dragged me all the way to a room where D009 was standing outside, he clenched his jaw at the sight of me and stepped to the side nervously.

D010, was leaning over D007, and immediately looked up at the sight of me. She was as pale as chalk, and she was falling asleep, her lips were almost as pale as her skin. Scowling at him, I started barking orders:

"Speed, go find a fan, if someone asks, tell them I need it, don't tell them why; Bronze, stay on guard, anyone tries to come in, say they're not allowed, do not let anyone in here, not even Dr. Halsley; Cortana?"

"Yes," an AI appeared in the room, unlike her short self, she had a much taller stature, almost as tall as John. Numbers and coding still danced across her body as she waited for orders.

"I need you to watch security cameras for-"

"For warnings of anyone coming by, and to keep tabs on Dr. Halsley," she questioned, "Izzie's already gotten through, she's even gotten past me…she's good."

Stealing a glance at her, before turning to D010 and taking the juice box from him and finally opening it. Cat helped her sit up, while she drank, I yanked off her shirt and pants so she was in her underwear and bra, to try and stop her from overheating. Speed finally got the fan in here and her color was starting to show.

"I'm going to take her with me and make sure she eats," I instructed, as D005 helped her back into her shirt and pants and started to go with us before I said, "The rest of you get back to bed."

She followed me, but no matter how slow I walked, she never walked beside me, always behind me on my side. I had her sit at the same table as Johnson and went and got her spaghetti. I placed it in front of her and she immediately started eating. Johnson and I talked for a while, and soon he head off and she quickly finished, she wouldn't look at me, at least not in my eyes, in my general direction, but never in my eyes.

"C'mon, lets get you to bed."

Walking, I finally stopped to address her, "You know if you're on a diet, then this is not the way to-"

"I'm not on a diet," it was the first words she said to me, and then as an after thought she whispered the word, "Sir."

"Then how'd you get like this?"

She stared for a moment before shrugging and admitting, "I'm can't run as fast as the others, "And I was tired of holding the back…so I was running."

Sighing, "Get to bed, I'll see you bright and early at six thirty…" turning to go to her room, I stopped her, "And don't ever pull a stunt like that again, or else you will defiantly not survive the augmentation."

**Is this good? Please review ^^ I really like them!**


	3. Chapter 3

**So I was so inspired, I finished up with this chapter too! ^^ Please review!**

Chapter Two: Faithfully

The days went on as usual, we learned to put guns together quickly, reload, etc. I found out that I was actually good at that, the fastest. Since I was, Master Chief decided to put me in stressful situations while putting together, taking apart, and reloading a gun. He was really quick, and so he would attack me, and everyone else would simply fire wherever, and I would have to dodge both, while putting together my gun, all of my parts, scattered across the field.

He was rough with me too, he would make me run the five miles under six minutes, and he'd keep me going until dinner, until I finally got 5:59. He wasn't interested in me, though, I could tell. He was bored with me, if anything. He, truly, liked Bronze and Catherine, you could tell those two were his "favorites" even if he didn't show it. You just really knew. He only bothered with me because he didn't like having, "a weak team".

The augmentation was coming upon us quickly, Dr. Halsley even came and visited us and said that we were almost ready after we demonstrated ourselves of what we've learned over the past months.

The Master Chief had a special plan for us D002, Ears, heard him over talking to Johnson about making us race the five miles. We joked during breakfast about how I would lose, and how Speed Racer was determined to break his time of 3:56.

D003 was Rifle, he had great eyesight, and could snipe someone out with a pistol, and he was really good with a sniper, of course. D004, we called him "mirror" because he was always in front of a mirror, making muscles at himself. D006, we called him pistols, because he could carelessly reload and load them, he preferred them too. And finally, D008, we called him the Hunter, he could track any of us, remember small things, twigs snapped by us carelessly trying to run and hide, the fact that a leaf fell from a certain tree from where we climbed.

That was all of us.

"Alright, today we will be running the five miles, I'll give you a fair warning: the one who loses will have to go through hell on Earth…the rest that make it; you just have to go through hell, this is the last week before your augmentation," he reminded us, "so we are just trying to prepare you. Ready?"

We all settled into a bunch, I was toward the front, to try and help me get some sort of head start; Speed was all the way in the back, jumping up and down in excitement.

"Go."

**Master Chief's POV**

Watching them run, I heard Cortana's voice behind me, as she appeared outside, "You realize that she's going to lose, right?"

"Lets just see how things go."

With that said we watched D007 and D009 bring up the rear. As they circled to me, I watched as D009 slowly started to slow so that he'd be behind D007. A natural born leader…he continued this, bring up the rear, leaving D007 second to last. She started glancing behind herself in confusion. As they were rounding for the last lap, it was like realization dawned on her, I watched as she took a jolt of a sprint, I thought she was just going to leave him in the dust for a moment, but then she skidded to a stop. And grabbed D009's forearm, he tried to rip away, but she turned and threw him and her weight into her toss so that he went flying, she put both her hands on her knees and watched as he landed over the "line". At first he lay there and then got on his knees and shook off the red dirt of the track and everyone watched as she jogged and finished her lap, the whole time staring at D009, he was glaring at her.

"Nice toss…" Cortana said, everyone turned to the hologram, she shrugged nonchalantly.

"You have an hour, SPARTAN-D007, you can't bring anything, but pack up your stuff, incase we get transported somewhere else."

Nodding, she gave one last glance at her team before leaving them, they were muttering between each other until I turned to them and fell silent. "You're excused." I told them and they ran off to catch up with their comrade. Cortana and I continued to stare at the planet that we would be leaving her on, Tornasu. It was as stable as Earth, but it's weather patterns were crazy, if she moved into a rainforest it could be either pouring down wet, or blazing hot like a desert. And then if she went into the "fields" it was either freezing blizzard, or winds that could reach dangerous speeds. Everything was to challenge her.

"You think she's going to make it," Cortana asked.

Scoffing, I finally asked, "Why are you so concerned about her?"

"…You know how I could pick you," she asked, I nodded, "I get to pick your partner too…and I don't pick you two by just liking, I just feel a connection to both of you."

I didn't say anything to that, I know she wanted me to, but I didn't. I just took out one of my pistols and fired all but one bullet left, and then walked into the headquarters of the UNSC and started to see the status on the ship that would take them to Tornasu.

**Brooke's POV**

The flight to our destination was quite, no one said anything to me, and nothing needed to be said. I already knew what they wanted to see, Bronze was glaring at me across the room. He was our leader, and he was just trying to do what was best for all of us, and now I took over. I had changed my clothes, into my second set. Same outfit, camo pants, boots, and black shirt. Cat was making nervous, she had a laidback stature, she was lazily laying on her back, propped up on her elbow, though; what was making me nervous was her nervous habit of twirling her knife. It was the one that her father gave her before he went off to fight in the war, she was twirling it nervously – a habit everyone knew about, and if she was nervous, we all should've been nervous.

D006, Pistols, continued to clean out his pistols; even though they were already really clean. He's cleaned them about ten times already. It was killing me, the Master Chief wasn't in here so we could talk all we want, but for some reason we didn't. I couldn't stop myself as I stood.

"Will everyone stop," I said standing, "I'm already scared as it is, but I'm not going to let it bother me – so _stop _freaking out, because if anyone should, it should be me. Anyone have a problem with that?"

"Try, I do."

Bronze's voice cut through the air, and I froze. He was still my leader, and I know he was mad at me, and I know he moved by his heavy footsteps, he was right behind me.

"You won't survive," he scowled, "Why do you think I was running so slow, I knew what was going to happen!"

"That's not fair to you," was all I said, and I didn't look at him.

Angrily, he suddenly was in my face and grabbed me by my shirt and slammed me against the wall, everyone immediately stood in alarm, Izzie was trying to take out the cameras so no one would see this and get us all shot for it.

"Hey c'mon, you've proved your point tough guy," Cat was saying, a knife posed, "She's right, it wasn't fair to you, she's taking her punishment for being the slowest, you think she was going to survive the augmentation if she didn't do this, he's just preparing her."

Bronze just glared into my green eyes, I didn't look into his blue ones, I just looked own, my bangs hiding my eyes. Finally letting me go, we all sat back down. The Master Chief suddenly came in and we all stood at attention, we've all come along ways, we all saluted in unison. He saluted right back and instructed us to sit, we did but at the same time, and unlike the SPARTAN-II project, instead of just staying at attention; we went back to relaxing and lounging around.

"D007," I just looked at him, not going to attention, "You're being dropped on Planet Tornasu, what you do on that planet is up to you. You'll be given a pistol, with a single bullet, a knife, and canteen; what you do on that planet is up to you. You're given a chip, so that we can find you at the end of the week, this will also tell us your heartbeat, so that we know if you're dead or alive when we come for you…"

"Sir, I'll take her place-"

"No one will be taking her place, sit down SPARTAN-D009."

Returning to his seat, he relaxed once more and he tossed me a parachute, I caught it with ease as he started talking to his AI, Cortana.

"She needs to jump in one minute, and counting…"

"Alright, any questions?"

"Yeah…" I whispered, my voice trembling, "W-what do I have to do?"

"Five seconds…" Cortana warned as the doors opened.

"Survive."

With that said he pushed me, Cat screamed at him as I freaked out at the sudden shove and went flailing in the air. Because of the imbalance, I was flipping. I tried to get my balance once more in the air, but have you ever sky dived and tried to get your balance again? It's not easy. Yanking on my parachute, it failed.

**On the plane…**

"Her parachute failed," Cat whispered as she watched her friend, she looked to the Master Chief, "her parachute failed, you have to go get her!"

"Settle down, D006, she's not done yet…"

**Back to Brooke's POV**

Continuing to flip, I started yanking on my spare. It wouldn't come out, I was starting to freak as I finally yanked it to the point where it broke and I felt a harsh jolt as I recoiled back into the air with a float. It felt like I got into a car crash as it yanked me back with its force. Floating down to the ground, the moment that I hit kept my feet together and tried to fall more on my ass.

I started to go flying a bit, but I yanked off the backpack so the parachute was weighed down and looked around at where I was, I was in some sort of meadows, or plains. The winds hit so hard that if I was a normal human, I would've been knocked down. Instead, I just walked over to my pack and repacked in the spare parachute, I could use it for shelter, the sucker. Looking through the pack some more, I wanted to see if he left me anything else. Just like he said though, the pistol, knife, and the canteen filled with water that would probably barely last me a day.

First thing was first, I yanked out my compass that I always kept in my crotch zipper, I set it down on the back pack and tried to make North or South of this planet, but was quickly reminded how the magnetic weren't like the ones on Earth and Reach, because it just spun around and around; sighing with annoyance, I unzipped my zipper once more, and put it back before zipping up my pants once more and carrying my back through the field, there was no way I was staying here, this wind was killer. I'd rather stay in the jungle.

"They say the road ain't no place to start a family…Right down the line it's been you and me…and loving a music man ain't always what it's supposed to be…" I sang to get some kind of noise besides the animals screeching and hollering, my dad was really into a band, "Journey" and I just kind of caught along to them when he passed, "Girl you stand by me…I'm forever yours…Faithfully…"

Crawling up the tree, and dragging my pack with me, I started to make a small nest. I had been watching these leamer type animals; they use the vines and allgey for bedding and protection from the rain and heat. I decided to mimic them, finding some allgey, I used it for the protection over my head, it felt a lot thicker than the parachute, I used some allgey as my bedding and folded up the parachute as a pillow, or blanket. I then decided to find a water source.

Sliding down the tree, I drew an "X" as my starting point on my tree. Marking my way, I drew arrows in the direction that I was going. And soon found a water source, which was plentiful in fruit. The perk of Tornasu was that you could tell if a fruit was poisonous or not by the coloring of the inside. Taking something that looked like an apple, I looked inside it and saw it to be a beautiful ripe yellow color, I took a bite out of it, and cut open what looked like a pear, it was a nice ripe red color, I tossed it away – poisonous. I took a good handful of fruit, and then filled up my canteen all the way with the water that flowed freely down into the valley. I then returned to my campsite.

A week of this…great.


	4. Chapter 4

**I don't think I put a disclaimer lol!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Halo: Reach, Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, or the Halo novels. Everything belongs to Bungie and Microsoft, and the author of the Halo novels! I also don't own some of the Chapter names; they belong to the song titles by Journey unless I write other wise.**

**Sorry it's been so long guys; finals for our school are this week! So I've been busy preparing. I also have Band Camp next week, so hopefully I can type up the next chapter tomorrow and over the weekend. Sorry for the inconvenience :)**

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Chapter Three: Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'

A week, a whole week, I had went by and I had given into my animal instincts, of course I still had my sanity. And every night I would try to remember my name; with the previous months, I couldn't remember my name because I'd be so tired, I'd fall asleep before I could chant my name.

Heading from the creek, I had just finished getting water for the night, and was heading back to my tree. I no longer had to look at my marked path; it became second nature; just as I was about to climb up the trunk, when a roar behind me made me froze…

**John's POV**

"Uh sir, her heart beats escalating," said the officer as the monitor suddenly went off the charts, "Should we check on her?"

"Cortana-"

Before I could finish my request, she had already uploaded and shown me the web camera that stood before me. She flicked through them carelessly and quickly before stopping at one of the SPARTAN. She was face to face with a native animal, a winshati. The cat-like creature swayed a little bit, circling his prey, waiting for the correct moment to strike. The SPARTAN was tense, watching, and waiting for her attackers first move…

He pounced, she threw him off and started to climb up her tree to get some sort of advantage on the animal, but the creature was just right back on her and dragging her back to the forest floor. She fumbled for her gone.

She was pathetic, and wouldn't make it in the SPARTAN program. She couldn't even reach for her damn pistol, or her knife. She was scrambled brained and couldn't think tactically or strategically or even quickly on her own. She had to have someone there, giving her orders. I had learned this from her when I took over and observed them. She was always given orders from someone whether it have been Bronze, Cat, or even myself; she always had orders from someone. It was down right irritating. Cortana argued that it was one of her best qualities though, she was a really good soldier, she thought things through herself, but never spoke against her superiors when given an order. And so they were both watching, waiting to see if she could actually think on her own, or if she needed that helping hand every time.

At first she reached for her gun, but instead she just grabbed onto the animals jaws as she roared in pain, the animal was digging his claws into her body and blood was slowly coming out. The animal snapped against her hands, crushing the limbs, but she held them away from her face, where the creature was desperately trying to grab a hold of her face, neck, or jugular.

Deciding that she would be able to kill it the ways that she hoped, she finally mustered up all her strength and snapped the creatures' neck so that it's head was upside down. She sighed and relaxed when it finally went limb on top of her. What she didn't notice was the female creature that was growling in pure rage…

**Brooke's POV**

A roar brought me out of my daze, and I groaned as also I was fully alert and started looking around for the other creature. I winced as the dead corpse's talons had exited me roughly because of my sudden alertness. Scanning the trees around me, I desperately tried to see the creature I was looking for. When I couldn't find it, I tried to back away from my position and again get to my new "home" so that I could have an advantage on the creature. But as I got on my own two feet, I was pounced on from behind, I easily rolled and slammed my back and the creature against a tree and threw it off me.

The panther like animal, flipped in the air and landed on all fours. It rolled its shoulder blades, glaring at me. It roared and charged. I ran right at and clashed with it and fought viciously. We rolled, dust coming up. I held it's square-box head as it tried to snap at me again, this time, though, the paw got me across the face and was thrown into the ground once more. I heard the heavy footsteps, and I came up just in time and slammed my knife through the top of its head and I heard the crack of the skull as the animal froze in my grasp before slumping.

Tears started rolling down my cheeks as I ripped the blade back out, it ended up breaking though; I kicked myself away from the two dead partners, sobbing to myself. I was so scared; that I didn't care that the lemurs were screeching and laughing at me. I covered my face in my hands with fear and shame for my fear and tears.

I'm not quite sure why right now it was starting to get to me being in the woods, going through this, I guess when you're in our "survival" state you just can't help but give into some emotions; this being one of them. I remember that night so vividly, I sometimes dream of that night, and I wake up in a deep sweat…I crawled myself up and I shed tears for the first time, watching my friend die in front of me, being dragged from Reach, my only home, by a SPARTAN, and having to leave my only brother. It was just kind of the hit of reality, that I had absolutely, nothing.

Patching up my wounds myself, I had to tear off some of the parachute, I knew that they weren't going to let me just jump into the plane, and I had already scouted out the land pretty well. That was one advantage; they would be running in here blind, while I knew the place by now.

**Two Days Later**

Today they should be coming; I was lying on my back, staring up at the trees as they flowed in the hard rain. The canopy I set up providing perfect coverage for me. Keeping me dry in the rain forest that I quickly became my second home.

"You're tearing' me apart, Oh every, everyday, You're tearing' me apart, Oh girl…what can I say?" I sang the song far to slowly and at an octave that was normal for me, "You're tearin' me apart, It won't be long girl, till you're…alone…When your lover…oh…hasn't come home. 'Cause he's lovin…" she sighed as she stared up at the sky, "touchin' he's squeezin' another."

I quickly fell silent at the small crack of a twig three miles away. Getting up, I stretched before climbing further up into my tree with ease, and climbing to the next. I couldn't help but feel like Tarzan as I easily slid down the moss covered branches to get to the next closer branch so that I could grab on and continue on to the next tree. Once I found who I was looking for, D009, Bronze. I stilled in my tee, looking down upon him. I took off a fruit and threw it behind him to see what his reaction would be. He whipped around with his assault rifle in hand, looking for the one who created the noise.

Once he continued on and was a safe distance, I couldn't help but snort from my nose. So this is what the game that Master Chief wanted to play, I would play.

**Second POV**

The master chief stared up at the girl, in only one week she had changed. She had become a better hunter. John watched as she easily stalked Bronze without any falter in her step, silent as a cat stalking her prey. She then went up behind him, covered his mouth and slammed his head into her knee and quietly sat him down. She quickly scanned the forest, and when she heard Cat coming, she disappeared into a tree.

Cat came up and saw Bronze. She checked the trees, but her poor vision didn't even spot the female that was perfectly camouflaged in the tree. Cat then kneeled down next to her fallen comrade and checked his pulse. She checked her surroundings one more time before reaching for her radio to warn her other comrades, but Double O Seven fell out of the tree with such a soft thud, John could've sworn that she was wearing the MJOLNIR armor, but she slipped out, she let out a small grunt as she dropped; but as Cat turned to see what the noise came from, Double O Seven simply stepped to the side and hit her right on her back pressure point, making Cat fall. She was good, he easily typed in coordinates, for his men to pick the two fallen soldiers up as he disappeared, last ting he saw was her taking their throwing knives, knives, and pistols. They didn't have anything else major.

Brooke, Double O Seven, quickly crawled back into the tree and peaked out of the forest of green leaves carefully to see if she could find the pelican. She scanned carefully for the metal bird, but didn't have much time to look because a bullet from a sniper, nicked her shoulder, and she quickly ducked and held her shoulder in pain, hissing. She saw the bird though, it was north East, she had decided what was north by the suns that would rise, and they came up in the same general area.

She slid down the tree with ease and started to walk but D008 suddenly came out of nowhere, knife in hand and tried to stab her, she ducked out of the way and tripped him. She then grabbed some rope that she had picked up and hog-tied the poor sucker. The forest had made her a lot quicker than the others, and a lot keener to all of her abilities. She then picked him up and yanked a piece of cloth through his mouth so he couldn't yell and alert her other comrades. She then started caring him towards the pelican.

Just as Brooke finished with him, she quickly heard Mirror coming at her from behind. She ducked the punch, put one leg over her victim in a predatory stance and threw a right hook. It hit him square in the jaw, and she then kneed him in the chest, and went to hit a pressure point, but he punched her square in the jaw, making her stumble for a moment, but that made her vulnerable. He then kicked straight in the stomach sending her flying into the grass. She heard him trying to find his knife, she let her predator instincts set in, that was her bait and he was taking it from her. She kicked off the ground, spearing him in the ground and punched him in the chest and clutched his throat. She wasn't going to choke him, she knew better. She held on tight though as he desperately tried to hit her, and only when she saw his eyes roll in the back of her head, falling into unconsciousness, she then let go immediately; she then put her ear close to his mouth and checked for a pulse, just to be sure she didn't kill him. When she was sure he was safe, he left him and picked up Hunter and proceeded to carry him towards the metal bird.

Arriving at the bird, she first scooped out who was there. Pistols was occupying himself by lounging in the grass and emptying the clips of his pistols before just snapping them back into place. Rifle was desperately looking for her though the scope, but couldn't find her; he was looking for her in a far distance anyways. Ears kept scanning the area, he was actually looking in her general area, and she wondered if he could hear her breathing. And finally Speed Racer was carrying an assault rifle at the ready, looking for her, too in the foliage.

Finally coming out, Brooke held Hunter up as a human shield. She was sure that she wasn't open in any area. Michael suddenly appeared and looked nervously. He looked odd with a FAL in his hands, like it really shouldn't belong there. But he held it with steady hands, looking for an opening in her defense. Brooke walked up to him; he was the only one that stood his ground, while everyone else backed up vigorously, unsure of what she would do. She then threw Hunter at Michael, and slammed Michael in the head with his own weapon, and then yanked it out of his hands. Gun fire was everywhere as she quickly hid behind some crates, she quickly checked the FAL with, continuously repeating to herself to stay calm, her hands were useless if they just kept shaking, she needed to stay calm no matter what.

She then turned and returned fire with the FAL, she nicked Ears, Pistols, and Speed in the shoulder, but she had to move as a sniper zoomed above her head dangerously. Reloading the weapon, she whipped around and shot Rifle in the kneecap so that he fell to the ground, holding his knee. She then dropped her weapon and ran up to Pistols, she went to attack, but Speed was on her first; she fell to the floor and he two wrestled, he to her on her back, lifted her up and slammed it against a tree root before punching her right in the face. He started choking her. She gasped in desperation, before finally squeezing her legs between them and then kicking him off her and slamming him against a tree. He fell to the forest floor, out.

This time heading for Ears, Pistols helped his comrade and grabbed her by her arms. She wrenched herself out, though, at first and went to slug him, but he caught it and twisted both arms behind her back painfully. He then kicked her knees and she fell to the floor, Ears came up to her and started beating on her. Punching her until her face was flushed with pain, and to the point where she had cuts on her cheeks and above her brows where his knuckles pierced her skin really good. Her mouth got cut, too, she grunted as he gave her a punch to the stomach making her cough up some blood from her lip. She had to get out of this. She waited for him to throw his punch before using all her strength and throwing Pistols from her back, forward, so that he took the punch instead.

She then easily broke Ears' nose and hit him in his pressure point. At first she thought she was done and let her guard down. She sighed as she forced herself to get up, swaying a little from the pain on her left kneecap where Pistols had kicked them in. She started to limp to the pelican, when she heard a twig snap; she whipped around pistol raised, only to be shot first. Standing before her was the Master Chief himself. She looked nervously at him, unsure if she should attack him or not. What he did next told her everything…

**Cliff Hanger! Hope you enjoyed, sorry for it being forever since I updated, but this is like my masterpiece of all the chapters! :) Hope you enjoyed, tell me if it went a little fast, or if it went at a reasonable pace. I actually like this chapter, and I hope that I can put as much effort as I put in this one.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay guys, I decided that I'd keep going because I put a lot of heart into this story and I'd hate to give up now :) Thanks to everyone, especially Loxton that reminded me if I liked the story that I was writing that I should keep going! I'd give him a big hug but I've never met him :)**

**And go read his story, "eternal protection" it's about the Master Chief liking Miranda Keys, she does survive what has happened, and it takes place after the third Halo, so it is its own story. The summary does a lot better on the story, trust me, JUST GO READ IT Lol**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Halo stuff, that all belongs to Bungie. And I also do not own the name of this title; the song is by one of my favorite bands, "Hey Monday".**

Chapter Five: But…I don't wanna dance

_Elizabeth walked into her room; she was waltzing to unknown music, considering we were listening to an old band, Hey Monday, "Homecoming". She was probably visualizing her boyfriend her dancing. She giggled a little at her fantasy and then spun around to me, only to burst out into laughter._

"_Girl, those cups are way to big."_

"_I know," I whined as I looked at the mirror, I was borrowing her dress, so it was very big on me, "Can I borrow your boobs for tonight, maybe I can actually get someone."_

"_No way," she said looking at her chest, "my boobs are awesome."_

"_You're cheating on me for them, aren't you," I joked; we had an ongoing inside joke, like any girl teenagers, that we were having an affair behind her boyfriend's back. Though sometimes people thought we were serious because I no longer have a boyfriend. _

"_Never on you, baby," she joked before simply stating as she started to change, "Just stuff your bra, do you need a bigger bra?"_

"_No," I sighed, "I think I'll just wear this ridiculous sun dress that my mom gave me."_

"_No," she almost whined, before stopping and thinking, she was half way into her dress. She jumped out of it and ran out of the room. I thought that that was really weird, but I figured since she was so weird that she probably did this on a daily basis. _

"_Okay, I'm back," she said waving her mother's Visa Card in her hands, "We're going shopping."_

"_Is it okay with your mom," I asked, trying to be the adult, in truth, I was excited for shopping, it was one of my favorite past times…it was defiantly a sport too, people just don't know it yet. You gotta lug around those heavy bags, and walk from store to store, that gets tiring._

"_Yeah," she said as if it was obvious as she changed into jeans and a jacket, I quickly followed suit as if someone had asked me to jump in bed with them and ride them like a cowgirl._

"_What are we waiting for?" We both giggled with laughter as we headed down stairs to ride the bus to the mall._

I was stuck between two poles, he was my higher command, I should follow him, not attack him. But my mission told me other wise; my mission was to "survive". And that means not getting shot, unlike the standard rubber ammunition that the military use in situations like this, training, the SPARTAN program uses regular. They're trying to train us for the worst, and so they don't want to sugar coat it by rubber ammunition, they want us to feel the pain, and if we can't survive with the regular ammunition and we died; we didn't belong in the SPARTAN program anyway.

Without even a word, he shot at me. I quickly ran to the side and started shooting myself, we were circling each other, messing up each other's aim and then I heard a resounding click from his weapon. I fired, and barely got him in the shoulder as he moved with ease. I went to shoot again, but found I had no more ammo too. He dropped his weapon, and I did the same.

For a moment we just stood there, sizing each other up. I was suddenly well aware of how tiny I was compared to him. He had to be at least six feet tall; I was barely reaching 4' 11". He looked big, bulky, well in shape; I resembled much of a toothpick, I was sure if he wanted to, he could break me in half.

The abridged version: he was stronger, he was faster, and more than likely better than me. I had to find a disadvantage of his if I wanted to survive this.

**Master Chief's POV**

Johnson made me promise that I would go easy on her, but looking at her now – I just wanted to show her what she was getting into, how she was the weakest out of all of them. She couldn't think for herself, she _had_ to follow orders; she was fast, and going against a Covenant, example: an Elite, and not being able to move quickly, that's one gain that they will have on you.

The SPARTAN program was the best of the best; we did suicidal missions that even Special Ops wouldn't dare to do. We were thrown into enemy fire and expected to be okay and if we didn't kill the enemy, we were expected to die. They always expected us to die, to not return. I would always see it in their eyes, as if this was going to be the last time that they would see me. She wouldn't last, she wouldn't be able to make the cut; and if I didn't kill her here, for sure, the augmentation would kill her.

Lounging at her, I was far to quick for her eyes and mind to register my movement; by the time she blinked she was on the ground. Her eyes widened in surprise, she elbowed me square in the jaw by swinging her entire arm up at me. I slugged her one and then grabbed her hands and put them by her head. She struggled at first and then arching her back, she used her whatever strength left and she threw me off as hard as she could, I went flying and crashed into a tree. I dodged the part of it that started to come crashing down.

She quickly got back up and we went at it once more, every punch, she would find an opening. If there weren't one, she would make one. She wouldn't strike first, either; she would wait for me to strike before quickly countering.

As we both moved, I got her not once, twice, but three times. I swung a right hook, and then punched her in the stomach, making her double over; I quickly followed with a knee to her stomach making her fall. I had given her a cut above her eye, and she laid there for a moment defeated, as I went to attack her, she tripped me and then straddled me on my stomach and then started slugging me. I tried to grab her with my legs, but ever time she would just wrench herself out and then punch me again. Finally I pushed myself up so that I was on top once more, I went to punch her when suddenly she pulled out a knife and placed it to my throat, she didn't cut, but put just enough pressure so that I knew it was there.

This girl, who had so many mistakes that needed to be fixed, the one that glared back at me with boring green eyes, had beaten me.

**Two Days Later**

Normal POV

Looking at my reflection as I brushed my hair and got myself ready to bed, I couldn't help but miss my long hair. Staying in a week in the jungle had made it grow out to my mid-back again, now it was cut into the regulatory shoulder-length so that I could yank into a bun in uniform. Taking off my pants, I sighed contently as I laid in my bed, I almost immediately fell asleep as my head touched the familiar yet foreign pillow that lay beneath my head, but my room mate, Cat, kept me up.

"Aren't you gonna brush your teeth," she asked as she was scrubbing her own.

"Is it gross if I admit that I'm to lazy and comfortable to move from my bed?"

"Yes to both, I can't believe you're my roommate some times," she said as she disappeared to spit out the toothpaste.

"You still love me!"

"_That was fun," I grinned like a maniac as we ran upstairs to her room, "and we have just enough time to do our make up!"_

"_Do you think that we're losing," her question came out of nowhere and made me whirl around so fast, I thought I got whip last, when I didn't respond, she probed on with, "you know, the war?"_

"_No way," I couldn't but scoff, "C'mon, when have we ever lost a war? We have nothing to worry about."_

"_I think we're losing," she whispered, "think about it, we hear no news about the war, we're expected to go on living our lives like our fathers or mothers or, like you, parents aren't dying somewhere in another galaxy! Sometimes I don't hear from my dad and I just…" she was crying by now. I rarely cry, and to see someone crying in front of me made me uncomfortable because I usually hid when I cried, I could tell she was ashamed by her outburst because she was blushing a little._

_Hesitantly, I went over and hugged her, she sobbed onto my shoulder and suddenly I said with much determination that I even surprised myself, "The moment that the Covenant finds Earth or even Reach, is the day that we know that we're losing the war, got it?"_

_**So did we lose?**_

**Okay, so as you can see, I'm gonna keep going with this, AND I hope you enjoyed it. I'm sorry it's so short; I really wanted to try and post something by tonight. I'm so tired too because swim practice is starting up and that means less time for me to write :( I'll still try to update weeklyish, and send me a PM if you're afraid I'm making the story go on "Hiatus" because I'm not. At least, I don't think I am :)**

**THANKS AGAIN TO LOXTON! He's awesome, go read his stories, there pretty good. I'm really hooked on eternal protection! REVIEW!**


	6. Chapter 6

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm terribly sorry for my long absence. It is not fair to you guys to have to wait, but I thank everyone that just curiously asked as to where I was, politely, and waited patiently for this chapter. I am a high school student, and I'm a very busy person (I know you guys get this a lot), but not one day went by that I wished I could post another chapter but with two AP classes, I'm constantly studying until 2, and the fact that I have swim practice right after school (I HATE swimming btw) doesn't help. But it is Christmas Break, so hopefully I can finish, or give you guys a lot of good chapters in the next two weeks of my break! **

**Again, I'm terribly sorry, but enjoy!**

Chapter Six: Augmentation

Two Weeks Until the Augmentation…

Have you ever had a dream that just repeats itself over and over again? I keep on seeing aliens, specifically Elites, just around me everywhere – and nowhere for me to escape to. The doctor I've been referred to, because it wakes up Catherine in the middle of the night, say that it's just the stress from the upcoming augmentation. Before I go to bed I try to wear my body out so much to the point where my brain is to tired to dream – but nothing works. Especially since I'm not supposed to put to much "stress" on my brain.

No one tells you how much work it's going to take just to fight in a war, you know it's going to be a lot, but I never pictured it would be this much. I never even imagined to be in the SPARTAN-III program, apparently it's some great honor because everyone looks at us either like we're stuck up, or gods/goddesses. I hate the one's that judge us and pick fights with us, Speed actually got beat up because he refused to fight back. I think he would've gotten in trouble anyways because they were higher ranked in the military. His arm was broken, and he went into physical therapy to get motor control over it once more. Sounds more like R and R to me, especially with what Dr. Halsey has the other's doing. She's officially taken over the SPARTAN physical training program and let me tell you, she is relentless.

They're starting to keep us in the dark now too, they don't want any stress on our bodies, besides the physical exercises that they put us through. They fear any kind of mental stress will be too much on us, for the Augmentation. They act like it's not happening any time soon, but we all know, we see more scientists, we wake up earlier just to get vitals and what not taken care of on a daily basis. We know it's coming, and we're all equally scared, anxious, and nervous about the procedure – this usually makes us more irritable. I've actually gotten into a full out brawl with Bronze; we were, of course, punished.

We wish we had someone to talk to, who else would understand us at this time but another SPARTAN? Even though he was almost as relentless as Halsey…we wish we had John again.

One Week…

A total of seven different drugs are given to us during the augmentation program. As each drug is added, the more risks and death percentage increases, we've learning biology now with Déjà. She shows us everything; she even showed us a SPARTAN-II augmentation. She then continued to explain how half of the entire SPARTAN-II program had died from the procedure, and then another third was severely injured to the point where they were hospitalized. Looking a Speed, the youngest, I couldn't help but feel my heart race. He was so young; it wouldn't be fair if he were to suffer any of the consequences that followed. It wouldn't be fair to any of us, to work so hard and then to suddenly die?

As I was thinking of this, Déjà suddenly called on me. I felt like I was back in my old high school, I often daydreamed a lot during class. But somehow I could always remember what the teacher had just lectured about; but with Déjà, it was downright impossible. When she started lecturing, her voice drowned into a monotone in the background that I couldn't even concentrate on.

"I'm sorry," I apologized sheepishly, and then admitted, "I wasn't paying attention."

A scowl suddenly crossed the AIs features as she stormed in front of us and slammed the textbook she was reading from on her desk, making everyone jump in alert. Her eyes were icy, I've never seen an AI angry before, and I've never seen an AI hold emotion before! This was scary, I wanted to shrink in my seat and hide away from her, instead I just stayed sitting upright and alert.

"One week…that's all you guys have," she growled out in a low dangerous voice, "And all you guys are, are children! You guys still hold no respect whatsoever; you don't pay attention, and you're by far the weakest SPARTAN program that I have ever saw. I've never had to look for the strong one's…I've always had to look for the weak ones and tear them out quickly before they _infested_ everyone else. So you guys better wake up, because believe it or not, one of you just may end up as S-117."

I am a weak one. Think about, not as a pity me thing. I'm stepping away from the equation as I sit on my bed, in the darkness, just staring at the wall across from me. I am. I'm the slowest one; I can't run for jack squat. I can't work a damn computer for shit. I'm not a good leader, that's for sure, I may state a small opinion, but everyone knows that Bronze is the one that is the leader; I know he'll go far. I'm not a terrible shot, but give me a pistol or sniper and I'm shit out of luck right on the spot, I have to have a machine gun, shot gun, SMG, anything that's fast and automatic.

Apparently I was a good fighter, but how often in combat did one get to go hand and hand? Probably not to often, leaving me the weak one. This knowledge hit me hard, what use did the Military have of a soldier who was weak anyways? I wish I had someone to answer me…

"Hey, lights out," someone said, looking up I saw the soldier staring at me weirdly. I guess I did look weird. I was just sitting in my room in my black tank top and boy shorts, leaning against the wall as the only light on, a lamp on my dresser, was on. And I was just staring at it. Nodding, I got up and walked over to the lamp and turned it off. The soldier then left, closing the door, and leaving me in total darkness.

Augmentation Procedure

"Please review the liability forms-" the doctors drowned on and on as we looked over the forms once more. It was just talking about our risks and blah blah blah, we already heard the story; this was the day that we face our toughest mission apparently. I couldn't stop thinking about the percentages, half of us will be dead…a third of us will be severely injured, and the last of us will be SPARTANs…

John was there again, for "moral" support. But none of us talked to him, and he didn't seem to want to talk to us. I definitely didn't want to talk to him, he sent me into the wild for a week, and he even though he never said it, I knew how he thought of me, and he saw me as the weak one too.

"Brooke," I didn't even recognize my name as I continued to sit, waiting to be brought into a lab, "D007."

Looking up, a doctor gestured for me to follow. I was stripped of everything; seriously, I was standing there like the last time I was in a hospital (I barely ever got severely sick), butt naked. I was put into a case and strapped in, they told me it was for protection for myself, so I would punch the glass on any instinct to the pain of the drug.

Looking at the Master Chief that was in the Observation Room, I couldn't stop my mouth from moving, "What am I supposed to do this time?"

They put a mouth guard on me so I wouldn't bite my tongue. Before the case closed on me, I watched the Master Chief press the button and then simply state, "Survive."

The case filled with a liquid that I didn't recognize. It was cold and it made my heart race as I thought that I was going to drown. I started fighting the restraints in alarm, someone was telling me to relax, but I didn't listen. I was going to drown. Taking a deep breath, I held it as the liquid incased my head too. Holding it for as long as I could, I looked around the room frantically; Bronze was in the case right next to me. I watched as bubbles suddenly came from his nose and watched his chest rise and fall. Did he have gills?

Suddenly breathing on accident, I realized that the liquid somehow was made of a deep component of oxygen. I could breathe it in all I wanted. I was short lived my sudden amazement of the liquid, and curiosity as to what it was as the first drug was given. My brain immediately remembered what it was, and what it did. Carbide Ceramic Ossification, it was the superman drug. My skeletal structure would be virtually unbreakable. Quickly the next drug, Muscular Enhancement Injections, it made my muscles stronger, and my tissue more dense; I tried to relax, to numb the pain that I was feeling somehow as I groaned out and pulled against my restraints.

Catalytic Thyroid Implant, a platinum pallet containing human growth hormone, it's given to the thyroid to boost skeletal and muscle growth. I felt like my bones and muscles would rip through my fragile skin, that's what my skin felt like. As though it was glass containing something that just wouldn't stop growing, I clenched my teeth and was glad that the guard was there as I felt the plastic clamp down on my tongue. Next was the Occipital Capillary Reversal, just a fancy procedure that boosted blood vessel flow beneath the rods and cones in your eyes, gave me a better vision, one that could compare to any animals.

I suddenly felt something shoot into my brain and tried to block out the pain as the procedure of "Superconducting Fibrification of Neural Dendrites" started. For those who haven't been in biology, Dendrites is a bioelectrical nerve in your mind, it's the one that starts any reflex you have in your body. They take on this information and send it to the rest of the brain; your brain then determines what happens next. The process that was occurring now was just increasing my reflex time, risks of this procedure were Parkinson's or Fletcher's Syndrome.

Finally when I thought I wouldn't be able to take no more, everything was gone. All needles removed, the liquid slowly drained from the container, and then the restraints unclasped around my arms and the seal popped to my container. Nurses were over us once more, they didn't let us look at each other, and they didn't let us talk to each other. They didn't want us to know who survived and who didn't.

No matter how crude it may have sound, I was actually happy for this. My mind was swirling, and I just wanted to collapse. I was taken into another room, I wasn't sure if the other's were too, but the nurse gave me my clothes back and it felt like I had just ran and did a lot of weight training. Everything was sore, and I was just tired. I yanked on my clothes though, and then was escorted to my room where I was told to sleep.

One thought crossed my mind before sleep overtook me: Did I complete my mission?

**What do you think? I'll be writing the next chapter immediately, and the latest will be tomorrow when it's up! Thanks again!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hello all! I'm sick, so I quickly just typed up the next chapter. Not as long as the last chapter, but it just kind of explains the deaths during the augmentation process.**

**Narrator's POV**

Brooke, D007, opened her eyes. Out of her other ten comrades only four survived the augmentation with no defaults. The SPARTAN program would forever have casualties, this was no different; though Dr. Halsley was trying to figure out what the survivors did differently than the one's who didn't. So far she couldn't figure out what.

Lying in her bed for a couple more moments, debating if she wanted to get up just yet or not, she finally lifted herself up and stood. Pulling on her camouflage pants she then proceeded to open the door, not bothering with pulling her hair up, and looked down the hallway. She was confused as to why no one was out, the hallway was completely empty, and looking at her watch though she realized it was three in the morning, explaining everyone's absence. Shuffling down the hallway, she wasn't too sure where she was going, she was just kind of walking, she couldn't sit still anymore.

When her bare feet touched the cool grass she suddenly was aware that she was outside, and was actually walking towards the main gate to leave. Moving her course a little bit, she stopped and kind of just stood in the middle of the field that she found hell on and looked up at the sky.

"It's pretty, isn't it?"

The voice made her jump, she turned and scowled at Hunter and how quite he was. She never looked at him before, she saw him when they were training, but she never looked at him. He had to be at least in his early twenties, he just had that maturity about him; he had black hair that was kind of wild, and brown eyes. He was handsome, and then she noted the ring on his finger. Brooke couldn't help herself; she was a teenager still after all. Her only boyfriend died on Reach.

"Yeah," she finally answered him, not realizing he was waiting for an answer, "Who's your girl?"

He looked to his ring and a small smile graced his face as he admired it himself, "Kathryn." He then produced a picture and showed her, not only did he have a wife, but apparently a daughter too. Both females had red hair. The woman's hair was curly though, and framed her baby round face nicely, and she had a small button nose. The woman had blue eyes, and freckles. The young girl had her father's brown eyes, but had her mother's red hair, and small blotches of freckles were already starting to form on the young girls face.

"They're cute," Brooke couldn't stop herself from cooing at the baby, "What's the babies name?"

"Terri."

Returning the picture, the two settled into a comfortable silence and went back to staring up at the sky. Realization dawned on Brooke though, and she shifted in her spot, unsure if she should ask or not. Did the others survive?

"Mirror didn't…" His voice again shook Brooke a little, and she turned to him, "You spoke your mind again…you have a bad habit of doing that when you're not paying attention, you know that right?"

"Now I do," she admitted as she scratched the back of her head, "Do you know of anyone else?"

"Rifle, Ears, Medic died, they didn't survive, their funerals are tomorrow morning," he said solemnly, "Pistols didn't make the Catalytic Thyroid Implant, he's in a wheel chair now, but they think he can do something else in the military if he wants. And Cat…"

"What about her," Brooke demanded after a long time of his silence in annoyance, and then asked again when he didn't say anything, "What's wrong?"

"She has Parkinson's Disease…"

**Brooke's POV**

What do you do when you're told something this devastating? Four of my comrades were dead, one severely injured, and one had an incurable disease. _There's medication though…_For some reason this thought didn't help me any. Nodding to Hunter, I suddenly decided I didn't want to be outside anymore and I went inside without another word. Walking down the halls hurriedly, I easily sidestepped everyone. Hiding my tears from everyone, _God dammit you're a crybaby! _Again, for some reason this thought didn't help me, it actually made me cry harder! Humiliated that even I could recognize how weak I was, I started moving faster.

Crap, the Chief. Definitely not wanting him to see me like this. I acted like I had a scratch on my face to hide my tears. But he grabbed my arm before I could side step him.

"I know it hurts…but you got to move forward," he let me go, and then as though he had an afterthought, he hurriedly said, "Cortana told me to tell you that."

With that said he stormed off, as did I.

**Chief's POV**

"Very nice, maybe one day, you could be a somewhat of a descent friend to anyone," Cortana said in his helmet.

"Shut up," I scowled, "You better not be picking her, just to annoy me."

**Okay, so it's shorter than the previous one, but I think this is a good place to stop. Again, I will be working on the next chapter almost immediately :) I've missed this series a lot, and so this series continues to run through my head over and over again! Read and Review?**


	8. Chapter 8

**Okay, so I'm terribly sorry for taking SO long to update! But I promise I'll try and be more on it once more :) Thanks for those that have still been waiting for this update, I actually moved from my home, Hawaii, I've lived there for my whole life and so I had to get used to normal weather (IT'S FREEZING) but I finally got this updated!**

"Cortana have you chosen your partner," questioned Dr. Halsley, "Do I even need to ask? D008 is almost exactly like John, it's him isn't it?"

Cortana couldn't believe that her creator didn't even know whom she was going to choose. They came from the same mind; Cortana had evaluated all of them with equal interest. But Brooke always held Cortana's interest; she would be the perfect partner for the Chief. She followed orders, that's what the Chief needed, not another leader, but someone who would follow his orders. Even if those orders were to jump off a cliff, well that was a huge exaggeration. But the fact that she took the Chief's wild adventure, forcing D008 to not be able to take one for the team, showed that Brooke could think for herself.

"No…I pick her," Cortana pointed to the screen of the teenage girl. The only picture she had was her high school picture, which they got from the high school records. It was a picture of her smiling at the camera for her high school ID. She had put up a peace sign at the last moment, showing off her adolescence, her black curly hair ran down her back and her hazel eyes turned blue at the sudden flash of white light making her look almost like a goddess. The only thing was, she had blemishes along her jaw line and a scar that cut through her eyebrow and down her right cheek.

"She's the one."

"This is the Semi-Powered Infiltration Armor," Dr. Halsley admired her most recent work, "Or SPI Armor for short."

"All call it that one…" I whispered as I looked at the beautifully designed armor with pure awe. It looked as though it would fit my skin right to the very breastbone, it was scary how precise it was, and I wanted to try it on.

"Who would like to go first?"

All four of us whipped our hands up, Cortana's eyes never left me and it was kind of unnerving as Dr. Halsley said, "Ladies first" and then led me to the armor. I had to take off my pants and boots because they were to baggy, but I quickly was zipped into a skin suit that was supposed to keep my body temperature at a normal degree at all times, and keep the armor from harming my skin if the armor were to melt for whatever reason. I was then helped into the actual plated armor and strapped in. The helmet made a hissing noise as it immediately started bringing up ranks of everyone that I could see.

I hadn't seen the Master Chief on the top level, but now that I could, I found out his real name – John.

"Okay we're just going to take it nice and slow okay," Dr. Halsley said, "You have to go through some motor controls first before we can move onto simply walking. D007 are you listening?"

"Huh," I said, I had been looking around the room to see who else I could find, "What?"

"Can you touch all of your fingers, like this," Dr. Halsley asked calmly. Before she could blink I had quickly did the movement, I couldn't stop the giggle of excitement.

**John's POV**

"Remind you of anyone," questioned Cortana from beside me, as she appeared sitting on the railing that I was leaning on. Glaring at her, I practically dared her to say "me".

"Okay, fine," she said putting her hands up defensively, "You understand why I picked her right?"

"Apparently we're alike," I scowled at that very thought; I saw Cortana roll her eyes at me.

"She takes order John-"

"Exactly, that's all she's good for," he almost snapped at her, "She's weak in that way, I could tell her to jump off a cliff and she would-"

"But remember Tornasu," she said as she stood, "She could think enough to put two and two together, and survive by herself-"

"After I told her to," I snapped.

We were silent for a moment; I could tell she was just giving me time to cool down though. She then continued, "But remember the trial to go to Tornasu? She knew that D008 was trying to be last to take one for the team. But she knew that she deserved to go instead, because the mission would've made her stronger. Give her a chance, or else the rest of the years that you're in the Military is going to be Hell my dear friend, because I have picked her, and she's our partner."

"And you follow orders too," she said with a smirk, "about 91.68 percent of the time you follow the orders I give you," her body suddenly had numbers going down her body, "I led you to destroy the first halo, and I'll be the one to lead you to destroy this second one."

"Speaking of," he suddenly said, "Shouldn't I be there, instead of here?"

"Dr. Halsley found it important that you were here," she said as the numbers dispersed just to the weird letters once more, "she thought it would be important for you to bond with your new partner."

I was acting like a child, and I knew it. I don't understand why this girl made me feel such strong emotions all the time; mostly I would just feel anger. I think it was the physical attraction between us. I haven't slept with someone for a long time, and I'm not going to buy a whore, too many damn credits these days…So when she took off her shirt when they were wrestling around, so that I could see her small, and not much to look at, rack, I felt a lot of blood rush to a certain appendage. So that had to be it. A physical attraction.

"Keep telling yourself that," Cortana suddenly patted my back before walking away and then disappearing.

Damn her.

**Brooke's POV**

When we had to get out of the armor, I was greatly disappointed. The armor was great, it was like anything I would do, the armor would just perfect even further for me. I couldn't miss when I shot; it was physically impossible in that armor. I could run as fast as I wanted without burning my pants off. I could jump as high as I wanted and my shoes wouldn't wear at the sole. It was amazing, and I couldn't wait to put the armor back on.

"Hey, I just received my mission," Speed said, suddenly beside me with a smile, "I'm going to Earth, where are you going?"

Shrugging I said, "I don't know yet, how do you find out?"

"Just go to your room," he said, and then waved an envelope as he said, "Mine was in this, on my dresser. See ya later Double O Seven!"

"It's…" I paused, and then tried to remember my name. What was my name? When I remembered it, the hallway was empty, so I just whispered, "Brooke."

Returning back to my room, I didn't see anything on my dresser so I ended up just taking off my boots and my pants and simply laying in bed. I hadn't even realized that I had drifted off, until I rolled over on my side. I just let the darkness consume me and let my mind take over.

Someone was in my room. This knowledge would usually make someone stiffen in fear, but not me. I was trained by this; I kept my breathing long and slow, regular, and my body limb as the person moved around my room, peeking out of my lids I watch the person walk towards my dresser, sitting up quietly, the person was unaware as I quietly walked up behind him, I then went to knock him out but before I could do that, he whipped around and grabbed my wrist.

We fought for a moment, but I ended up on my bed with him on top of him, only to see it was the Master Chief. I glared and gave him a shove, successfully getting him off of me and making him hit my dresser as I sat up with a glare.

"You know there's this new thing," I said sarcastically as I stood, not at all embarrassed of the fact that I was only in my black t-shirt and black boy shorts, "It's called knocking!"

He seemed to notice my appearance because his cheeks kind of grew red with embarrassment but it didn't show in his voice as he simply stated, "Get dressed. We're leaving."

As he headed towards the door, I was pulling on my pants and followed after him in my bare feet, boots in hand, as I tried to keep up with him. I'm not sure if it was my laid-back personality or what, but not even the Military seemed to be able to take out my slow walking. I was just slow on land, we quickly learned, I guess this is why in my class I'm technically the last.

_But you survived; _a voice whispered in my ear, making me shiver as I decided to stop talking to my own mind, "I'm with you? Why? You hate me."

"I do not…_hate _you," he said, actually somewhat hurt about her statement, "I just don't like weak people on my team – and sadly you're on my team."

I snorted at that, but he didn't stop his stride as he looked down towards me with a slight scowl, "You're with me because Cortana picked you."

"Cortana picked me," I asked, "does she have a virus or something?"

"I already had her checked," I'm sure that his statement was supposed to be under his breath, but I caught it. I pulled on my socks and boots as we walked and didn't even bother tying them up; he was walking to fast to do such a thing. I didn't even know where we were going until we entered a docking station.

Walking casually over to a couple of a scientists, they quickly suited him up, I pulled my hair into a pony tail, a couple strands falling in my face, but I was too tired to worry about them, and too confused as to what we were doing as they stripped me of the pants and shoes that I just had trouble to get on and then helped me first into the skin suit, and then the armor. They ran a couple of test right quick before John lazily tossed me an assault rifle, which I strapped to my back, and then he tossed me two dual pistols, which I quickly hoisted onto my legs.

"Where are we going," I asked as we boarded one of the ships, he sighed towards me like I was an idiot, which only made me mad as I glared at him – though he probably couldn't see it due to the suit…

"To war."


	9. Chapter 9

**GUESS WHO'S BACK?**

**I'm sorry it's been so long, but this is what I've been working on for so long:**

**Guess who's a finally A PURPLE PIRATE? Because I live so far away from NC (I'm on an island), it took me months to get them to accept me. They said I didn't have a credit, but I had to call for weeks until I finally got a hold of someone, and explained to them that I DID have that credit, and so after that I thought all was G. But guess what? ECU has SO MANY FREAKIN' USERNAME/PASSWORD/ETC, I was getting so confused and I had to apply for dorming because my family won't be coming with me. So after I applied for everything, I finally got housing, and I'm good to go. I just have to apply for classes.**

**I'm SO sorry, but I'm glad no one demanded me to continue, like: "You shouldn't put a story up if you can't update on a daily basis blah blah blah" you know?**

**Furthermore, I'm proud to say that my Water Polo team went to States and am the Constellation Champions for 2011 :) so everything stressful in my life is finally over!**

**Lastly (and this actually about the story) for all the haters that are still going on about the age thing, don't like, DON'T READ. And I know it's rated M, I think I'll get into that a little in this chapter :) just calm down!**

When we landed, to say I was confused would've been an understatement, I immediately took out my assault rifle and followed John's lead of running over to a group of soldier's hidden behind a rock. But as something blue streaked across right in front of my face, I immediately turned to see the Covenant. I took out the easier, but annoying, targets first: the grunts. They were easy to kill, only taking about three bullets each before falling over. The elites were harder.

The elites are much harder to kill, they stand maybe a foot or two taller than Master Chief himself, and I already stand a good foot shorter than him. They easily dodged my fire, and I soon got annoyed so I put the assault rifle away and took out the two pistols and charged.

There were three of them, and I wasn't about to go for all three, so I singled one out and caught his attention and moved so that I was at least safe from fire from the other two. As he came at me, he hit me with his plasma rifle, making me dazed for a moment, before I rammed one of my pistols in his helmet and the other right against where a Human's heart would be and shot with both, he stumbled and so I hit him right on the back with my gun, making him fall.

I heard a roar of anger and didn't have much time to react as something tackled me to the ground, I twisted my upper body, since he had my lower body pinned on his big figure and threw a punch, but he just punched me right back. He then grabbed his plasma rifle and prepared to fire, but another gun appeared right on his head, a shotgun. It fired – loudly – making my ears ring, but someone hoisted me up.

"You need to stay light on your feet, rookie," Chief said as he easily tossed the gun aside and instead took up the plasma rifle and barely aimed at the last Elite, before firing him three times in the head each time, even though the Elite dodged, but he hit each time.

"How do you do that," I couldn't help but ask.

He shrugged, "If you've fought against them for as long as I have, then they tend to be just a little to predictable."

Nodding at this, I followed him back towards the soldiers. I still didn't understand what the exact mission was, or at least what the soldiers mission was in the first place, why were we even on this planet?

"They came here to pick up life form intelligence," Cortana's voice made me jump, "but were attacked and were scattered along the planet. We're simply here to secure the area and then make sure they all get back safely."

"Got it," I said, "…you can read my thoughts?"

She paused, "Sort of, I can feel your emotions, and I'm an intelligent AI remember? I can kind of pick up on human body language, you bite your lip whenever you're confused about something."

Blushing in embarrassment, I stopped chewing on my lip, and instead focused on looking around the area for anymore Covenant that just may be around – but found none.

"Hey," someone tapped on my helmet annoyingly, I turned and saw John glaring at me suspiciously through his visor, "you wanna stare at the scenery or do you want to do your job?"

"Sorry, sir," I apologized, he then turned and started off with me closely following behind him. Cortana pinpointed another group of marines, on the coast. We started off towards there when something came into my peripheral; I turned to see a covenant drop ship zoom overhead. They tried firing at us, and John grabbed me and ran behind some rocks, and we waited patiently for it to disappear.

"C'mon," his gravel voice said into my helmet, "we need to hurry."

He was getting annoyed, I could tell. I was the slowest out of all of them and I was holding him back. But somehow if I told him to run ahead of me, I knew he wouldn't. When they got there, marines had successfully retreated to higher ground in rocks, so that the covenant was at a disadvantage down below.

"Demons," I heard a roar behind me, and turned to see an elite charging me.

Running backwards to try and create space between us, I shot my assault rifle quickly, and then there was a click. I tried to swap mages but found the gun to be jammed. I set out a curse and quickly took out my second weapon, .45 pistol. He laughed at my second choice of weapon, and started firing. Dodging to the best of my abilities, I soon got tired of this, and slipped underneath him and threw a right uppercut, making him dizzy. I then hit him with my elbow in the chest, he went to bring his fist down on me, and I didn't move as fast and immediately something started beeping in my helmet. The shield was down, groaning, I dodged, trying to let the shield at least return to 50% to not much luck. Finally, getting tired of playing cat and mouse with this guy, I slipped my .45 into his helmet and he let a yell of alarm as I shot two shots and then he fell silent.

Turning, I saw two jackals starting to fire at me. I moved in zigzags at ease, and then knocked out the shield of the first and then hit him dead. The other one turned to run, and I aimed for his head and shot, he fell to the ground next too.

Surveying the area quickly, I saw John battling two elites, and two Grunts heading towards him to shoot him from behind. Quickly unjamming my assault rifle but ripping out the jammed mag, I replaced it and then looked through the scope and easily took down the remaining grunts and then shot one elite clear in the head, but because of the distance he only turned to glare at me. He fired back, but he missed both times, so I shot, double tapping this time and he fell. John broke the last elite's neck and I followed him up into the rocks to figure out the damage done between the marines.

"We need a medic, sir," a marine said to the Master Chief as one man lay yelling on the ground, as someone attempted to tend to him.

"Petty Officer," at first I didn't respond, and then I realized that he was speaking to me.

Walking up to him I said, "Sir?"

"See if you can help the fallen marine."

What the hell? I wasn't a medic, but didn't say anything as I walked over to the person, and quickly took out my first aid kit. The burn was third degree and covered almost his entire chest area, the smell of burnt skin entered my nose and I felt the urge to vomit but instead I swatted the marine's hands away that were trying to press the burn to stop the bleeding on his arm.

"What's your name," I asked as I ripped up his sleeve and just tied it off above his elbow.

"A-Adams, ma'am," he groaned, "God!"

'I'm not God' I wanted to say, but instead I said, "You're gonna be fine, you hear me?" He nodded, and I said, "How'd this happen anyways?"

"Ugh…Penny over there," he said, his voice shaky as he recalled it, "she didn't see the banshee…"

"Banshee," I questioned, and looked into the sky as I tended to the burn, "Did you shoot down the banshee?"

Before he could answer a marine quickly yelled out, "Banshee!"

Alarmed, I watched as the banshee fired. I didn't have time to move Adams to cover, so instead I covered him with my bed and let out a painful yell as I was hit twice. But the armor took the hit, and the shield was down once more, beginning to grab Adams he let out a yell, I couldn't carry him. The burn on his chest would probably start bleeding out. Instead I quickly went through his back and grabbed out his sheet and laid it down messily.

"Okay, Adams, just hang in there," I said as I moved him, he let out a yell in pain from the movement. I grunted as I grabbed up the sheet and dragged him underneath rocks, it wasn't much protection, but it would have to do. Quickly, I continued to wrap his chest up messily. I heard the banshee come low to the ground, so I grabbed my assault rifle, and turned and jumped onto the banshee.

I'm not exactly sure what I was thinking to make myself do something this crazy, but the banshee started flying up, going higher and higher.

"Brooke, you need to get inside the banshee," Cortana's voice barked, "You're going to run out of air!"

Alarmed at the realization, I quickly ripped open the hood of the banshee and then proceeded to take out the elite and let myself in, and shoving him down so that he fell.

"Uh, Cortana, I don't know how to fly this thing," I said alarmed.

She proceeded to explain to me how to fly the banshee and I followed her instructions. But as I was coming closer to the ground, I didn't know how to land, and I skidded on the ground and then tumbled in the banshee before it came to a halt right side up. Climbing out, I shook my head as I looked up to see a plane slowly descend onto the ground and land to take the troops back home.

"The last of the marines are about 900 meters from us," Cortana stated in our helmets, "the easiest way would be to go through that forest."

"I hate forests," I heard John groan in his helmet.

"Why," I asked curiously.

He ignored me though and started off towards the forest. I rolled my eyes childishly, but quickly followed after him. I didn't have to run very fast to catch up because the moment he entered the forest, he walked carefully. Avoiding noisy foliage as he watched his footing, and scanned the forest warily.

"I don't like the forest," I heard him whisper in my helmet, and it made me jump, "because, there's too many places to cover. You never know what you're going to…"

"Step into," I offered, and he turned back to look at me, and I couldn't read his face because of the visor but he simply nodded and we continued our quiet march.

At the snap of a twig, he held his hand up and we both crouched into the foliage for slight coverage. We heard quiet barking coming from the distance, I looked up into a tree, and tapped John. When he didn't respond, I climbed into the tree, and grabbed his shoulder and hoisted him up with me. When we were at a good height, and the leaves from the tree covered us well, I pressed us as close to the tree as possible.

We looked down to watch two jackals in the front marching in front, and grunts in rows of two following behind. Instinctively, I tried to make myself even more invisible by pressing more into the bark, but that caused me to push myself into the Master Chief instead. We waited or them to pass and then waited a couple moments longer than that and then finally falling from the tree quietly, the Master Chief following suite.

"Let's go," his deep voice growled out and we turned returned walking quietly through the forest.

We were walking for quite some time; I was actually getting tired when something suddenly made everything jump. Alert, I looked around, he seemed to be looking too, but was moving quicker now. He no longer cared if something could hear him; he seemed to just want to get out of the forest. We got out, and found the ocean and not far away from us was a scarab, at least that's what popped up on my screen. It looked more like a spider, but it only had four legs, and it seemed to be trying to get into some rocks.

"Sir, I think the marines are in there," I stated the obvious and immediately felt bad as he looked back at me, I could only imagine what type of look he was giving me so I just shrugged lightly.

"How the hell did they get stuck in there?"

"Well, let's go find out…" I said, only taking a couple of steps before he grabbed my arm.

"Wait, we should take care of the scarab first," he pointed out, "how's your shoulder?"

"Fine, sir," confused as to where he was going with this, "why?"

"Because I need a way of getting on there, and it takes too long to try and shoot it's legs to have it to fall," he said, "think you can throw me?"

"I'll do my best, sir," I said nervously, looking him up and down to get a general idea of how heavy he was going to be.

"I'll help you as much as I can," he stated simply before walking away.

Following behind him, we tried to stay behind it and out of sight, but it seemed to see us, he picked up his pace so we were both running, we ran underneath it before coming out the other side and I took two long strides, and then grabbed his forearm, spun for momentum and then threw him with all my might. I saw him fly over, and I quickly ran underneath the scarab to the other side to make sure he hadn't come off from the other side, but there was no sign of him.

"Sir," I asked.

"Good job," he stated simply, I heard shouts and gun fire, "go to the marines and see if you can help out with any of the fallen marines that may be down there."

With his orders, I ran to the rocks in an attempt to climb, but as I slipped the scarab blast a hole through the rocks and I tumbled down and let out a gasp as a rock came barreling down. My breath hitched, but two other rocks saved my life. I sighed in relief, and easily lifted the rock up and looked to see the scarab heading towards me. Desperately trying to get out of the rocks, and hopefully to avoid a hit, the scarab's alarm suddenly started going off, and I sighed when I saw the Master Chief jump out from the back and run from the vehicle.

Slumping against a rock, I couldn't wait to head back to our ship.

Forty-Eight Hours Later

(John's POV)

She didn't sleep as we rode the pelican home with the last of the troops. It was a simple search and rescue mission, Dr. Halsey had said we weren't to do anything to major until we developed some sort of partnership. I have to say, she was smart and knew when not and when to attack. Like in the forest, I wouldn't want a big commotion, and we weren't sure if they were heading to the rest of their comrades and their comrades expecting them. She was smart enough to climb the tree and drag me u with her.

She had removed her helmet though and it was now sitting between her legs on the ground. Someone had offered her a cigarette and she kindly refused, but she did take a stick of gum from the other man who offered. The physical attraction between us peaked once more, and I wasn't too sure if she felt it too, but she glanced at me and gave a soft smile.

I needed a whore…

**Again, sorry for the long wait. I really have no excuse, we were packing up everything and I left my island :( sad day, and then college was being a bunch of butt heads and you know what? THEY NEVER TAKE PHONE CALLS! They always tell you to leave a voice mail and they'll get back to you, but the deadlines are coming up…I guess that was procrastination on my part. But because of the 6 hour time difference, I had to be skipping school just to talk to them, or waking up early, and then throw in Water Polo for States and I was just tired all the time…**

**I love you guys, and I really missed this story :) Please review!**


	10. Chapter 10

**All right, here's the next chapter!**

**(: REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! :)**

Brooke walked down the hallway, she had eaten with the marines that they had saved but John didn't eat. He just stared at her from across the cafeteria, and she shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. Finally, he said something to a friend; at least he looked like a friend, and left the cafeteria. She shivered from his hazel-eyed glare. She sighed as she pulled the hair tie out of her raven hair, she didn't notice the obvious noises that were coming from the other room until she actually listened and turned to the door.

There was a thudding noise, and loud moans in the throws of pleasure. Brooke's face went as hot as a volcano and changed the color of a tomato when she thought of what was going on in the other room. She decided to simply try and ignore the noise and when the woman from the other side let out a loud moan, Brooke sighed thinking that it was over.

There was a long silence as Brooke finished stripping into her black t-shirt and underwear, but the moment she crawled into bed, they started up once more. She groaned in annoyance and tried to put her pillow over her head. When that didn't work, Brooke finally got fed up and walked outside. She no longer cared that she wasn't wearing any pants and that she wasn't wearing a bra on underneath, she only wanted some peace and quiet.

She banged on the door and the woman giggled as there was a rustle of movement. The door then slid open to reveal no other than, John!

"John," Brooke gapped, he was bare chested and only wore a pair of boxers.

"Ask her if she would like to join us," she heard the voice say, it came from a blonde.

"Can I help you with anything?"

At the woman's gesture, Brooke's face turned even redder. She shook her head and John let his eyes linger down her body, and then he slammed the door because he now had another hard on for the girl that now scrambled to get back into her room in pure embarrassment.

He walked over to the whore that was too many credits for John's liking, she wasn't even that good, but he swore if he didn't get any of his sexual tension out then he would jump on his partner and rape her like a mad man. He quickly removed his boxers once more and the woman got on her knees this time and John barely made any noise as the whore sucked on his cock. But instead of blonde hair, he pictured the woman with black hair, and a little less bustier, and tinier too. When she looked up she no longer had blue eyes, but a deep brown, and John groaned at his own images of the girl next door.

He then slammed her against the wall that was where Brooke now tried to sleep and started once more to ram his hips into the other woman's.

Brooke heard the noise and couldn't help but feel how embarrassed she was as she tried to ignore it. Her brain then flashed to a conversation she had with a fellow marine woman…

"_So, you and the Master Chief ever…" the woman asked, and the man sitting across from her started making bed squeaking noises._

_My face felt warm as I said, "Oh, God no!"_

"_What he's hot," the marine beside me, said, "if I was you, I'd be throwing myself at him."_

"_He hates me," I admitted with a shrug, "You know that 'intelligent' AI, Cortana," I said, putting finger quotes over "intelligent", "She's obviously not that intelligent if she decided to pick me as his partner."_

"_Why would you say that," the marine beside me, Frank, asked._

"_Because, I was the worst of my class," I stated simply, "I was the slowest, the only thing I had on them was that I was the strongest…and that's just because in high school I was in Water Polo, I weight trained everyday."_

"_Huh, no kidding," said Maria beside me, "I played water polo too, but that was a while ago. How old are you kid?"_

"_I'll be turning twenty-five this coming September," I admitted._

"_You're only a kid," cried out the marine across from me, "what's the military doing with a kid?"_

"_Have you even lost your v-card," Frank asked._

_All eyes were on me as I tried to play it cool, but I felt the blush cross my cheeks, and apparently that was the only answer they needed._

"_Girl, have you even touched yourself," when my blush increased and I excused myself, their laughter still rang in my head._

Brooke looked in the mirror, the blush still crossing her features as she stared at herself. She went over to her door and locked it, she then laid on her bed, as the moans continued in the room next door, John's room, Brooke slowly let her hand trail from above her head over her breast and down her body. She closed her eyes and she saw John touching her, and she immediately opened her eyes in alarm. Nervously, she closed her eyes once more, and allowed her hand to start to rub her clothed opening. Her lips parted a little, and her legs spread slightly to give herself more room, she bit her lip, as she slipped a finger between the fabrics and touched the small bundle of nerves making her thigh twitch and her to shiver in anticipation.

Getting annoyed, Brooke looked to be sure that her door was locked, and she didn't have a roommate, she then pulled down her under wear, and rolled up her shirt a little so her hand could touch skin a lot easier. When she inserted a finger, she furrowed her eyes in discomfort, it didn't hurt, and it just felt weird. She then moved her finger in and out, moments later she was feeling a need in her stomach and so she slowly inserted a second, she let out a gasp as she continued this, she started pinching her nipples, picturing John biting her chest, and then let her hand drift once more to the bundle of nerves again. She started rubbing her clit in a circle and she couldn't stop the moan that escaped her lips, and she bit it to keep herself quiet as she inserted a third without thinking. No longer caring if someone heard, just wanting to feel the end of what was to come.

She gasped as she came, her feet curling into the mattress as she slowly relaxed.

At least she finally touched herself…

**8 hours later**

"Brooke," John banged on Brooke's door, and she opened her eyes.

"Shit," he heard from the other side and the rustle of clothing, before she opened the door, "Sir?"

"Get a shower, and meet Cortana and I on the deck," he said simply, deciding to just ignore last night, "be quick."

"Yes, sir," she said and watched him leave.

Brooke quickly jumped into the shower, after last night she thought about touching herself again in the shower, but then remembered that John said to be quick. She shrugged it off and instead just quickly washed off before changing and towel drying her black hair and then running out of her room as she yanked on her boots and tied them in the elevator before arriving on the Captain's deck.

"You're not in uniform," he said, gesturing to her hair.

"Sure, but a whore on a military ship is okay," Brooke said sarcastically to herself, but John turned to glare at her.

She quickly yanked up her hair, and didn't say anything more. That's when Brooke saw the whore from last night: she was the navigator! Brooke's jaw dropped, and John turned away from her and her childish attitude as she stared at the navigator who acted nonchalant now.

"What-" she grunted as John stepped on her boot, and the Captain started explaining their finding of yet another Halo.

"Halo," questioned Brooke quietly as Cortana appeared beside her.

"Also called Installations," explained Cortana to her, "they're ring-shaped, as you see, and were constructed by the Forerunners throughout the galaxy. They were built as a last resort when combating the parasite, as you know as the Flood."

"They can kill the flood?"

"Only by destroying their food source…" Cortana explained.

Brooke chewed on her bottom lip, "but…that's us, and the Covenant."

"We know that," Cortana said, "the Covenant doesn't, at least we think they don't. So they're landing on the Halos to activate them, it's going to be up to you and John to stop them…"

"Why aren't there any Covenant ships here then," Brooke asked.

"This one is mainly a research Installation, we need the information that's on there to find the other Halos, and see if there's an easier way to stop the Flood…" Cortana said, "if there's not, we'll just continue to blow them up, of course…"

"Well it's worked in the past," Brooke said with a shrug.

"If you two are done gossiping," John said, "Suit up, we leave in ten minutes."

"What's up his ass," Cortana asked once he was out of earshot. 

"Sounded like he was getting a good sleep last night, I don't know what's wrong with him," Brooke said with a roll of her eyes as she followed him down to their suits.

After suiting up, they were put in individual pods but could still communicate through the helmets. As the ship moved and their final coordinates were input into the machine, John heard her grumble something along the lines of, "I hate flying…"

"Get used to it," he said, "We do a lot of free falling."

"I can get used to it," he heard her say, "doesn't mean I have to like it…"

Her pod started beeping as they were fired off, John tried to look at her through the small window in his pod, but couldn't see what was wrong, "what did you do?"

"Nothing, nothing," she said freaking out a little, "what does that mean?"

"I'm not sure," John admitted.

"Oh God," he heard her whisper, they weren't far from the ground so John was beginning to think it was just a faulty pod when suddenly, her pod shot her out to early.

He watched in horror as she went flying, but she was smart enough to try and brace her fall by putting her arms out a little. She fell through the trees, and heard her grunt in pain as she landed, the suit should've taken most of the hit. John's pod released him in a hiss of air and he ran over to his partner and made sure she was okay. She was faced down, and her helmet had scuttled in her fall. He grabbed up her helmet, and checked her pulse. At his touch though, she grabbed his wrist and spun around but then saw it was he, she released him.

"I hate you," she scowled, snatching her helmet and righting it, a crack visible on her visor.

"What did I do," he demanded.

"Sir, I didn't get to live my exciting college years," she growled out, "so I'm going to blame you, regardless of your rank…sir."

Brooke couldn't see his face, but he was sure that he rolled his eyes. He then turned away and Brooke quickly followed after him as they headed towards what Brooke could only describe as some sort of skyscraper. Those were the only words that seemed fit to call what they were heading towards. But something continued to beam out of it in spurts.

"So…where's the covenant," Brooke asked, "shouldn't they be here to stop us?"

"Do you want them here to stop us," John demanded.

"John," he stopped and turned to her, she threw her hands up, "you're not the least bit suspicious?"

"No, and neither should you," he growled, "you're thinking too much towards the future, that's not our job, our job is to work with what we got. If this turns out to be a walk in the park, good for us; if not, then we'll take it from there."

"Do you understand," John growled, he knew he wasn't being fair, she was just being cautious; he was more upset with himself. He hated himself for him seeing her with that woman from the night earlier. But instead he growled, "Do you-"

"Yes, sir," her voice wasn't harsh, cold, it was just monotone and that's what annoyed John the most. He turned away and continued through the forest, he heard her say a few curses through their open mic, but he decided not to call her on it.

**Told you I'm back! Please review, and I'm glad to see a lot of people are adding the story to their alerts :)**


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